UNION CITY — Ever since school let out, Roman Razawi has been driving from Manteca to Fremont twice a week to work on his jump shot.

The Manteca High School junior and his Fremont teammates set one goal for themselves this summer — win the 2007 Bay Area Summer Classic, an Afghan basketball tournament held last weekend at Logan High School in Union City.

It turned out this wasn’t the year for the schoolyard team dubbed Skillz That Killz. They lost every game they played on Saturday, but Razawi still had a blast.

“It was just fun to get together with all the Afghans and play some ball,” he said.

The tournament, organized by Fremont native Qais Haider, is as much about bringing Afghans together as it is about getting them away from the temptations of an idle summer.

“Kids are picking up bad habits at a young age,” saidHaider, a 20-year-old San Jose State engineering student who fears many young Afghans are using drugs. “We want to teach them to make the right decisions.”

On Sunday, the action was fast and furious. Point guards, several of whom wore head coverings and sported beards, pushed the ball up the court with gusto, and no one shied away from a three-point shot.

“I get pretty into it,” said Ahmad Tariq, who was charged with a technical foul during his team’s loss.

When they’re not playing basketball, Tariq, a Newark resident, and his teammates, named the Peace Makers, host Friday night current events and religious forums for Muslim kids at a local mosque.

The weekend tournament was mostly secular. Many players went outside for daily prayers, but there was no call to pray over the loudspeaker, as a few competitors wanted, and the gym was reserved primarily for basketball.

“This could be improved a lot with a little more of an Islamic presence,” said Rohullah Bayanzai, a sophomore guard on the Newark Memorial High School’s varsity team. A couple of his friends agreed.

There were few unfamiliar faces among the 180 or so players last weekend. Similar tournaments are held in other cities, and many of the players said they will travel to New York City next month to participate in a tournament headlined by members of the Afghan national team.

“This is just to get us ready for the big one in New York,” said Qaise Mojaddedi, a member of team Forest Park — named after the Fremont elementary school, which he and his teammates all attended.

Although soccer remains Afghanistan’s favorite pastime, basketball has been played there for decades. Shazia Nawabi said her husband played ball as a boy in Afghanistan, and she could have, too, if she were so inclined.

Not anymore. Women’s athletics hasn’t returned since the fall of the Taliban, said Nawabi, who was happy to watch the three girls’ teams take the court Sunday.

“I’m just excited to get on the court,” said Anais Meskienyar-Flynn, a high school junior from Pleasanton who was recruited to play for the Lady Outlaws.

“We know girls in Afghanistan don’t normally play sports, so when we get a chance to show our skills, I think that’s really cool.”

Staff writer Matthew Artz covers Union City for The Argus. He can be reached at (510) 353-7003 or martz@angnewspapers.com.

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